[MD] MD Two Theses in the MOQ

[Michael Hamilton]

Ian,

Thinking about it, I think it was specifically your "to name it is to
kill it" that made me bristle. If you'd said "to define it is to kill
it", then fine. But to name something is to give it life, not to kill
it. Yes, defining Quality would kill it. But imagine: what kind of a
life would Quality have if Pirsig had never named it? It would just be
a vague notion held by Pirsig and nobody else (although I'm not sure
if it could even be notion...can you have a notion of something that
isn't signified? this twists me up just thinking about it). You might
say that it would still have life because it has so many other names:
the Tao, the One etc. But this only shows how something needs to have
a name.

By writing about it, Pirsig breathed life into Quality. Language is
our friend, not something to be suspicious of.

Regards,
Mike